Learning
by weirdgirl42
Summary: Sequel to my story "Waiting" though you don't have to read that first. Booth learns some new things about Brennan.


_Author's Note: This is technically a sequel to my first Bones story "Waiting" but you don't have to read that first. Takes place after Bones and Booth have gotten together._

**Learning**

"What are you doing?"

Booth and Brennan lay in bed. They had just finished a rather exuberant celebration of having arrived safely for their first night on their Hawaiian vacation. Brennan's head rested in the crook of Booth's shoulder while he seemed to be preoccupied with drawing patterns on the arm that lay across his chest.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"My arm," Brennan replied.

Booth smiled slightly. "I realized that if you look at them from this angle, the little moles on your arm look like the Orion constellation."

Brennan felt her cheeks flush slightly. "Booth stop it."

"Why? It's just another piece of data to add to my Bones file."

She shook her head, but she was smiling.

Booth kissed the top of her head and spoke softly into her hair, "I want to learn everything about you."

"You already know more about me than anyone else," Brennan reasoned.

"Yeah but," he shifted so they were laying facing each other, "it's not enough."

Brennan smiled and lightly touched her forehead to his. "What do you want to know?" she asked.

"Hmm," Booth said, his brow crinkling slightly. "Tell me about your first time."

"My first time what?"

"Come on Bones," Booth said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. "Your first _time._"

Brennan pulled away, a look of understanding passing across her face. Booth watched as even in the minimal light he saw her eyes darken and felt her body tense. "No," she replied firmly. "No Booth."

"Hey," Booth said gently, raising a hand to cup her face. From the way she had responded, he knew this was more than the usual embarrassment over bumbling, virginal sex. "It's okay. I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me." He felt her relax some. "But Temperance," he added, "nothing you ever tell me about your past could make me think less of you. Ever. It's a scientific impossibility. You got it?"

Brennan was not overly surprised by his words. But what she was surprised about was the fact that she believed him. She nodded, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Booth leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. She closed her eye at the brief contact and a feeling of total peace washed over her. She remembered that this wasn't some random one night stand making conversation they hoped would lead to round 2, this was Booth. This was the man that knew her better than anyone ever had. The man who would, quite literally, take a bullet for her. And who trusted her with parts of himself he never showed to anyone else. How could she not show him the same trust?

"I was fifteen," she began.

Booth's thumb stopped stroking the side of her face and his eyes met hers.

"He was my second foster father," she continued. "He was 57. It wasn't consensual."

Booth felt his pulse rise and his stomach churn. Her voice was so calm, detached. She could have been giving him facts about some bone from a case. But even in the darkness he could see two tears escape from her eyes. Leaning forward he kissed them away, it was the only thing he could think to do. "I'm so sorry baby," he said, using the endearment she had always hated before hearing it come from him.

Her partner turned lover's tenderness caused Brennan to choke back a sob. "No one believed me," she told him through the tears. "And he claimed I was a liar and causing trouble all the time. That I was just trying to get him arrested so I could have run of the house. My social worker believed him. She already thought I was a problem because I refused to talk to anyone or open up to her. I guess the only upshot was that they moved me to a new place."

"What's his name?" Booth asked.

"Why?"

"Because when we get back I'm going to find him and make sure he can never use certain parts of his anatomy ever again. And then I'm going to shoot him in the knees because it'll hurt a lot." His voice was dangerously low and Brennan had no doubt that he meant every word. She should have felt a little nervous at his capacity for rage, but instead it made her feel safe.

She scooted towards him and sighed as he immediately wrapped his arms around her. "His name was Adam Oswald," she said into his shoulder. "And he died ten years ago."

"Well he's lucky then."

They lay in each other's arms for several minutes in silence.

"I've only ever told one other person about that," Brennan said at last.

"Angela?" Booth guessed.

"No. Angela doesn't know. She thinks that my actual second time was my first. And that was who I told. My second sexual partner. I didn't think it was fair not to warn him in case I panicked or something."

"Who was he?"

She smiled against his skin. "Patrick Bell," she said. "I was twenty and he was my Ancient Chinese Culture TA." She felt Booth stiffen and she knew he was thinking about another authority figure taking advantage of her. She continued quickly, "He asked me out after the final exam. Said he didn't think it was right until I wasn't his student. We were together that summer until he got a fellowship in Beijing. We still email on occasion, though we've never resumed a sexual relationship. He's married with three kids now."

She paused, her mind flooded with memories of that summer and of the first man to treat her like a real person since the day her brother left. "He's a good man," she told Booth. "He never questioned what I told him had happened. He just believed me. And I had never had that happen."

"Well then I'm grateful to him." Booth said, kissing her forehead.

She looked up into his eyes, tracing the contours of his face with her fingertips. "Thank you for believing me," she whispered.

"Thank you for trusting me to." He shifted onto his back, pulling her into her earlier position against his side.

"So what was your first time like?" Brennan asked after a moment.

"Pretty standard," he replied. "15, girlfriend of a month, whole thing lasted about a minute and a half."

Brennan chuckled and Booth was thankful for the sound. "Well your stamina has certainly improved since then," she said, kissing his shoulder.

"I certainly hope I have improved in many ways since then."

Brennan grinned. "While I hesitate to feed your ego," she said, then her voice lowered to a more serious tone, "it's the closest I've ever been to breaking the laws of physics. I've never felt this way about anything Seeley. Or anyone."

Booth rubbed his nose against her brow. Then he puffed out his chest and they both laughed. Running his hand through her hair he felt her breathing begin to even out. "Temperance?"

"Yes?"

"Tell me one more thing that no one knows."

Brennan let out a breath. "You're the one who wants to go snorkeling tomorrow morning. We need to sleep. And don't you think you've learned enough about me for one night?"

"No I mean something happy or funny or silly."

She thought for a moment and then moved to climb out of bed. Booth watched as the moonlight reflected off her naked body, making her beauty seem almost heavenly. She walked to her suitcase, dug down to the bottom, and pulled something out. Booth couldn't make our what it was as she crossed back and climbed under the sheets beside him.

"This," she said, holding the object out for him, "is Manny."

Booth laughed out loud as he took what he now recognized to be a stuffed animal monkey from her hand. The toy was dark brown and obviously well-loved from the wear and tear on the fur.

"Russ gave him to me when I was six," Brennan explained. "I lost my stuffed dog and he spent all his money on a new animal for me." She took the monkey back, smiling at the childhood keepsake. "He said that monkeys were the best for keeping bad dreams away because they could hug you in your sleep."

"That's good reasoning," Booth said.

Brennan brought Manny to her face and breathed in deeply. The familiar smell comforting her like it always did. Then she placed him on the nightstand. "I slept with Manny my whole childhood and somehow managed to keep him with me in the system even though personal belongings are usually lost or stolen or confiscated."

She turned back into Booth's side, laying an arm across his body and mentally naming the bones she traced on his chest. "No one knows that I still keep him in my nightstand at home. Or that I take him with me when I'm going to be out of town for more than a day."

"And he keeps the bad dreams away?"

"Of course not Booth. He's a stuffed animal. He has no actual powers over dreams. Dreams are products of our minds continuing to try and process information while we sleep."

"Of course. But you have to admit Bones, keeping a stuffed animal close every night when you're in your thirties isn't exactly rational."

"No, I suppose not. Rationally he doesn't make bad dreams any less frequent."

He smiled and kissed her temple. "But it does make me love you more."

Brennan leaned up and kissed him soundly before snuggling back down for some much-needed rest. They were nearly asleep when she whispered, "I hope you realize that tomorrow night, it's your turn to tell secrets."

Booth grinned and pulled her closer. "Wouldn't miss it for the world Bones."

**The End**

_thanks for reading, please let me know what you think since I'm a little uncertain that I have Bones' voice right._


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